If a Tree Falls in the Forest…

Recently I had the opportunity to hear a keynote speaker at a psychology conference at Ottawa University. At the conference Dr. Mario Beauregard presented his research on the neuroscience of consciousness.

I scribbled notes quickly as he spoke. It was fascinating (and familiar to me after having read Bruce Lipton’s Spontaneous Evolution.) But of all the things he said one statement stood out: “Without consciousness,” he said, “the world does not exist.”

This brought to mind that ancient philosophical riddle; “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Evidently it doesn’t make a sound: If there is no consciousness to witness it–it doesn’t even exist!

Do you get the feeling we’re tiptoeing around something profound which will change our lives when we are able to fully grasp it? Reality is not only skewed by our consciousness, it is created by it.

I’m not a philosopher but I love quantum physics. (Did you see the movie What the Bleep Do we know?) I’m beginning to wonder if, at the base of it all, this is a quantum universe. Its all holograms; my hologram, your hologram, everything we see a projection of our own making. We see a world, not the world; a world created by our expectations that have been formed by our interpretations of our experiences. What a wonderful rabbit hole this is!

If this is a quantum universe we each have our own hologram: Does this mean when we make efforts to help someone we only actually help them in our hologram?

And is the holographic world like a video game; when we turn away does the world behind us disappear? What happens if a tree falls just as we are stepping out of the forest?

About The Author

LoriI have always loved writing and community building. I’ve written a book about healing and happiness, The Happy Place, as well as a Community Building book, Sounding the Drum: Community Building in the Digital Age,both available at any Amazon store. I’ve been through life changes that I thought were the end of my world, but I’m still here. You never know what will happen next. Isn’t that what makes life interesting?